I am a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, I also am a Senior Fellow in International Religious Persecution with the Institute on Religion and Public Policy. I am the author and editor of numerous books, including Foreign Follies: America's New Global Empire, The Politics of Plunder: Misgovernment in Washington, and Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics. I am a graduate of Florida State University and Stanford Law School.

Having Given Up On World Peace, Here's A Modest Christmas Wish List For Santa Claus

I don’t expect very much from Santa Claus these days. I mean, he’s been a disappointment over the years. My desires are few—power, money, and fame, that sort of thing—but he’s yet to satisfy any of them. So I tried downgrading my requests to world peace and the end of international poverty. But that didn’t work either. He never delivered.

So this year I’m trying to be more realistic. I have just a few simple requests. It’s been a difficult year so Santa, this would be a good time to give me at least something that I want.

Top of my list would be for Americans to stop confusing politics with morality, law with ethics. Government has an important job: to protect us in the exercise of our rights, which stem from being independent moral agents created in the image of God. The law should reinforce basic interpersonal morality, that is, regulate our interaction with others. Murder, rape, assault, theft, fraud—all of these should be outlawed because they violate people’s essential liberties.

However, politics should not devolve to a crusade focused on intrapersonal morality, that is, attempting to make other people better. It always seems easier to fix other people than ourselves, but Jesus warned us to take the log out of our own eyes before trying to remove the splinter from the eyes of others. Law-making should not be soul-molding. Or trying to make people healthier, nicer, politer, cleaner, or whatever other goals we might have for our fellow man (and woman!). Government does a bad enough job protecting us from criminals. Please, Santa, make the obnoxious paternalists, national nannies, and social engineers go away!

Second, I wish the Great Gift-Giver would stop any businessman who praises the wonders of free enterprise from ever asking for a special subsidy, bail-out, tax preference, regulatory advantage, or other government privilege. When I first came to Washington and proudly took up an office in the Old Executive Office Building while working as a Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, one of my first official visitors was a representative of the energy industry whose opening line was “I am for free enterprise, but … .”

It was a mantra that I came to hear often. Many business visitors praised the wonders of capitalism but then related, sadly, how his or her industry and especially company had a special need for just a little government help to level the playing field, make up for past unfairness, match foreign subsidies, spark economic growth, overcome outside difficulties, etc., etc. Of course, all hoped that I would resist outrageous efforts by their competitors to secure unfair advantages. But their cause, in contrast, was just, fair, efficient, pure, and right. I really didn’t mind the bad policy advice all that much. It was the hypocrisy that was most irritating. It’s time Santa took care of this problem!

Wish number three is that people stop using language that seemingly forecloses debate, especially when they are on the losing side of the issue. Consider foreign “aid.” It sounds so good, who can be against it? But, in fact, we have decades of experience with government-to-government financial transfers, which is what foreign “aid” normally is, and the result has not been good. In the main Washington has underwritten authoritarian, collectivist, and incompetent regimes, reinforcing failure and discouraging reform.

Sulfur Dioxide emissions caused quite a stir two or so decades ago when alarmists warned that “acid rain” was destroying lakes and forests across America. How can any normal person do anything but run for cover from “acid rain”? In fact, the federal government spent hundreds of millions of dollars to determine that SO2 emissions weren’t nearly as potent as feared, and had only a modest environmental impact. But that didn’t stop a congressional stampede to set up a special expensive new program as part of the Clean Air Act.

And then there is President Barack Obama’s “Affordable Care Act,” which is having the opposite effect. ObamaCare is eliminating inexpensive health insurance options, dramatically pushing up premiums for the young and healthy, and reinforcing the third party payment system which has made American medical care so expensive. A cynic might suggest that administration officials and congressional members knew what was going to happen, but carefully chose the legislation’s name to mislead—I hesitate to say “lie” to—the American people.

Fourth, Santa, please stop people from confusing the First Amendment with free expression. The country has gone agog over the “reality” television show Duck Dynasty and the comments of one of the characters, Phil Robertson. I’ll admit that I’ve never watched the show and don’t see the appeal in watching some goofy people goof around in front of the cameras. After all, I live near Washington, D.C.

The A&E network suspended Robertson, but that has nothing to do with the First Amendment, which protects against government suppression of speech. Instead, if I don’t like something you say and don’t want to work or even associate with you, that is just life. In a free society that should be my right—both of expression and association—as basic as your right to voice your opinion. Of course, your family then can threaten to stop working with me, as Robertson’s family has warned A&E. And viewers and potential viewers can decide whether they want to watch or not, which seems to be what most of the country is talking about at the moment. But this battle has nothing to do with the Constitution and the essential framework for a free society.

A separate wish, but highlighted by the Duck Dynasty imbroglio, is that people would stop turning every little controversy into a matter of high moral outrage. Why should anyone get excited about what someone on a silly television show says off the set? In a large, complex society like our own, lots of people will believe things and behave in ways which irritate and even outrage us. Life will be better if we generally tolerate the opinions and actions of others.

Of course, not murderers, child molesters, and rapists, and, my personal hate, politicians who want the U.S. to roam the globe bombing, invading, and occupying other nations. But there’s no reason to turn the world upside down in response to those who believe ObamaCare will make medicine affordable, consider homosexuality to be a sin, think Republicans are terrible people, don’t like atheists or Catholics (or both), make stupid gender-, race-, or ethnic-based remarks, or are generally obnoxious and clueless. You don’t like what they said/did? Minimize your contact at work. Avoid them at the Christmas party. Don’t visit their barbershop. Refuse to respond to their provocations.

But don’t try to drive everyone you disagree with from the public square. We all benefit from a diverse, vibrant, and provocative public environment despite the irritations and offenses caused by some. A world turned ever more intolerant, nasty, and threatening by zealous PC police of all sorts will be a truly depressing place. Not to mention that we might end up as victims of the new public Star Chamber as well.

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